Solution Architect

at  Markel Corporation

What part will you play? If you’re looking for a place where you can make a meaningful difference, you’ve found it. Because, at Markel, the work you do gives people the confidence to move forward and seize opportunities. Whether you’re wild about horses, bananas for boats or driven by data, you’ll find your fit amongst our global community of optimists and problem-solvers. We’re always pushing each other to go further because we believe that when we realize our potential, we can help others reach theirs.
Join us and play your part in something special!
The Solutions Architect is a vocal futurists that can advocate their vision and be excited about creative problem-solving as part of a cross-functional team. The Solutions Architect will obsess over writing smart, simple clean code and will tirelessly strive for the best end-user experience, with the drive and desire to keep learning the latest development techniques.
Solution Architect
What we are looking for…
Markel Insurance Group is seeking a talented and passionate Solution Architect to join its P&C Insurance Solutions team. The Solution Architect is accountable for directing the development and technical implementation of Markel’s technology strategy across all domains. The primary purpose of the Solution Architect is to help establish a blueprint across multiple domains that support the systems that are required to be maintained for growing the business. Has deep and broad knowledge of technology across multiple domains.

What you’ll do…

• Ability to balance business needs and costs with the technology, including analysis of cost-reduction opportunities.
• Provides technology solution expertise, technical leadership, requirements, and assistance to Systems Analysts, Systems Engineers, other Solutions Architects, and application development teams
• Champions for architectural integrity and balances this integrity with business needs and constraints
• Maintains ongoing knowledge of current and changing business and technological environments and technical platforms across domains. Must be able to translate this knowledge into end-to-end integration blueprints to lead the migration to new, stable, scalable environments that keep the business positioned for success.
• Provides recommendations to improve and build new capabilities or alternative solutions, including documenting the company’s existing or new solutions and technology portfolios
• Offers technical direction on how to adopt and use the latest tools and technologies, including evaluating new technologies and providing recommendations
• Liaisons with Enterprise Architects and other idea generators to research emerging technologies and recommends technologies that will increase operational efficiency, infrastructure flexibility, and operations stability and develops initial solution designs to prototype
• Leverages current internal agile and Dev Ops processes to optimize delivery practices but also looks outside for opportunities to disrupt from within and continually expand what is possible using Markel’s current technology
• Enforces a system of governance framework, and policy standards for systems and software
• Up to 10% travel.

About you…

• Required - Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, other related field or equivalent work experience, including military experience
• Preferred - Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems or Business Administration
• Familiarity and certification on enterprise architecture frameworks such as TOGAF a plus
• 10+ years of IT experience
• 5+ years of architecture, consulting, or business analyst experience
• 5+ years senior engineering of application development or infrastructure delivery
• Creation of strategic roadmaps and conceptual architecture diagrams for implementations
• Must have practical experience in design techniques and tools, risk assessment and management, integration of large-scale environments, (multi-user, multi-platform, multi-site, etc.)
• Ability to travel occasionally
• Insurance industry background preferred
• Insurance certifications or affiliation with industry group a plus

Some things you have experience with…

• Excellent communicator, able to articulate technical issues in plain and technical language based on audience
• Ability to build relationships and be a trusted advisor to IT and business partners
• Utilizes a broad range of expertise, industry knowledge, and business acumen to meet business objectives
• Promotes the growth and development of others
• Flexibility and attention to details
• Strong desire for continuous improvement
• Ability to grasp the “big picture” for a solution by considering all potential options and impact areas
• Ability to derive technical specifications from business requirements and express technical concepts in terms that are understandable to multi-disciplinary teams, in verbal as well as in written form
• Ability to delivery of high-quality presentations from whiteboard to drawings to presentation decks
• Ability to lead collaborative meetings from 3 to 30 participants and guide others through change
• Guidewire experience would be useful

The base salary offered for the successful candidate will be based on compensable factors such as job-relevant education, job-relevant experience, training, licensure, demonstrated competencies, geographic location, and other factors. The salary for the position is $130K - $155K with a 35% bonus potential.
Must be authorized to work in the U.S., and not require sponsorship now or in the future.
Who we are:
Markel Group (NYSE – MKL) a fortune 500 company with over 60 offices in 20+ countries, is a holding company for insurance, reinsurance, specialist advisory and investment operations around the world.
We’re all about people | We win together | We strive for better
We enjoy the everyday | We think further
What’s in it for you:

In keeping with the values of the Markel Style, we strive to support our employees in living their lives to the fullest at home and at work.

• We offer competitive benefit programs that help meet our diverse and changing environment as well as support our employees’ needs at all stages of life.
• All full-time employees have the option to select from multiple health, dental and vision insurance plan options and optional life, disability, and AD&D insurance.
• We also offer a 401(k) with employer match contributions, an Employee Stock Purchase Plan, PTO, corporate holidays and floating holidays, parental leave.
• Markel offers hybrid working schedules of 3 days in the office and 2 days remote.

Are you ready to play your part?
Choose ‘Apply Now’ to fill out our short application, so that we can find out more about you.
The base salary offered for the successful candidate will be based on compensable factors such as job-relevant education, job-relevant experience, training, licensure, demonstrated competencies, geographic location, and other factors.
Caution: Employment scams

Markel is aware of employment-related scams where scammers will impersonate recruiters by sending fake job offers to those actively seeking employment in order to steal personal information. Frequently, the scammer will reach out to individuals who have posted their resume online. These “job offers” include convincing offer letters and frequently ask for confidential personal information. Therefore, for your safety, please note that:

• All legitimate job postings with Markel will be posted on No other URL should be trusted for job Markel Group Careers.
• All legitimate communications with Markel recruiters will come from Markel.com email addresses.

We would also ask that you please report any job employment scams related to Markel to
rarecruiting@markel.com
.
Markel is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate or allow discrimination on the basis of any protected characteristic. This includes race; color; sex; religion; creed; national origin or place of birth; ancestry; age; disability; affectional or sexual orientation; gender expression or identity; genetic information, sickle cell trait, or atypical hereditary cellular or blood trait; refusal to submit to genetic tests or make genetic test results available; medical condition; citizenship status; pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions; marital status, civil union status, domestic partnership status, familial status, or family responsibilities; military or veteran status, including unfavorable discharge from military service; personal appearance, height, or weight; matriculation or political affiliation; expunged juvenile records; arrest and court records where prohibited by applicable law; status as a victim of domestic or sexual violence; public assistance status; order of protection status; status as a smoker or nonsmoker; membership or activity in local commissions; the use or nonuse of lawful products off employer premises during non-work hours; declining to attend meetings or participate in communications about religious or political matters; or any other classification protected by applicable law.
Should you require any accommodation through the application process, please send an e-mail to the
rarecruiting@markel.com
.
Educational and Professional Qualifications…

• Ability to balance business needs and costs with the technology, including analysis of cost-reduction opportunities.
• Provides technology solution expertise, technical leadership, requirements, and assistance to Systems Analysts, Systems Engineers, other Solutions Architects, and application development teams
• Champions for architectural integrity and balances this integrity with business needs and constraints
• Maintains ongoing knowledge of current and changing business and technological environments and technical platforms across domains. Must be able to translate this knowledge into end-to-end integration blueprints to lead the migration to new, stable, scalable environments that keep the business positioned for success.
• Provides recommendations to improve and build new capabilities or alternative solutions, including documenting the company’s existing or new solutions and technology portfolios
• Offers technical direction on how to adopt and use the latest tools and technologies, including evaluating new technologies and providing recommendations
• Liaisons with Enterprise Architects and other idea generators to research emerging technologies and recommends technologies that will increase operational efficiency, infrastructure flexibility, and operations stability and develops initial solution designs to prototype
• Leverages current internal agile and Dev Ops processes to optimize delivery practices but also looks outside for opportunities to disrupt from within and continually expand what is possible using Markel’s current technology
• Enforces a system of governance framework, and policy standards for systems and software
• Up to 10% travel